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One big risk: Kendrick Perkins is the best high school big man in the
county. In his world, the 2003 NBA draft looms large. Should college
coaches recruit him? - College Basketball
by
Mike DeCourcy

Kendrick Perkins climbs out of bed so early each morning he
occasionally beats the humidity to the Ozen High track. He steps
onto its surface by 6 a.m. to begin his daily workout routine, which
includes two hours of running, two of weightlifting, two more spent
developing his skills and, later on, another mile jog just to show he's
serious about all this.

He runs to gain stamina, lifts to gain muscle and practices to gain
confidence and precision with his scoring moves. Those are the
nominal reasons Perkins, a resident of Beaumont, Texas, and the
best high school center in America, spends so much of each summer
day in training. The practical reason for his intensive effort is more
elusive.

Is he working to become an NBA lottery pick, or an All-American?

"Right now, I'm leaving all my options open," Perkins says.

So long as one of those options remains college basketball, Perkins
will be pursued by coaches dreamily picturing his massive flame in
their colors. He is 6-11 and weighs 270. He is so gifted that even
after an admittedly lifeless performance at last summer's adidas
ABCD Camp, most analysts rated him higher than any of the senior
big men there.

Were it not for Akron small forward LeBron James--a talent so
extreme some experts believe he would have been the top NBA
draft choice as a high school sophomore--Perkins would be the No. 1
player in the prep class of 2003.

That is a difficult package for college coaches to ignore, even as
they recognize the strong possibility Perkins is beyond their reach.
Nine U.S. high school players have been chosen in the first round of
the NBA draft over the last four years. With the summer evaluation
period for basketball recruits opening next week, the colleges must
decide whether it is worth spending time and money trying to recruit
the nation's No. 1 big man. It's hard to imagine Terry Holland fretting
over whether to chase Ralph Sampson for Virginia or John
Thompson debating the merits of scouting Patrick Ewing, but that is
how the process has changed in the last two decades.

"At this point, it would almost be wasteful to spend significant
portions of July trailing Kendrick Perkins," says recruiting analyst
Dave Telep of TheInsidersHoops.com. "He fits the profile of a guy
likely to jump to the NBA. I think most schools are wise enough, at
this point, not to make Kendrick Perkins a I-A option.

"Most of the elite-level schools will hope their recruiting a guy that's
playing against Kendrick Perkins, so if they need to they can go back
and say they were there one day watching him. That's how the game
has to be played."

All Memphis coach John Calipari can say about Perkins, because of
NCAA regulations, is whether the Tigers are recruiting him. Indeed,
they are, along with Texas, Arizona, Florida and a fair number of
others.

But no one is better qualified than Calipari to discuss the merits and
perils of recruiting draft-minded players. He lured guard Dajuan
Wagner to Memphis last season, though many believed he would not
enter college. The Tigers gained a commitment from prep power
forward Amare Stoudemire, who later withdrew that pledge and
entered the draft. They signed junior college small forward Qyntel
Woods last fall but lost him when his NBA prospects soared.
Stoudemire and Woods went in the first round of last week's draft.

Thus, Memphis worked to land three players who spent one of their
combined 10 years of eligibility with the Tigers.

Calipari, a bit weary of defending himself on this subject, would
rather ask the questions.

"Of the top 40 high school players," he says, "how many of them
would like to go directly to the NBA?"

All 40, perhaps.

"Darius Rice--he said he was going directly from high school to the
NBA," Calipari says. "Now, he's going to be a junior at Miami. How can
you say you're not going to recruit Darius Rice?"

Good point. And you could say the same about incoming recruits
Shavlik Randolph of Duke and Kelenna Azubuike of Kentucky.

"If you're at Arizona, UCLA or Memphis or Kentucky," Calipari says,
"you're going to be able to recruit the best players in the country.
Now, if you're not going to recruit the best players, what you're
saying is that every four years, I'm going to have a good team. And
you're fired."

Calipari says he believes it is essential that a team pursuing a draft
prospect have alternative recruits in place. When Woods announced
he would not join the Tigers, Memphis immediately offered a
scholarship to 6-7 Rodney Carney of Indianapolis, whom Calipari
considers a steal.

Cincinnati's Bob Huggins believes there is a place for a player who
appears to be a short-term collegian, so long as he fits into a
program the way DerMarr Johnson did with the 1999-2000 Bearcats.
They needed a shooting guard, and Johnson needed at least a year
of polish.

But Huggins has quickly withdrawn from recruiting players he
perceives as lacking even that much interest in NCAA ball. He
fiddled with the pursuit of big men Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry,
who are now with the Chicago Bulls. "But I didn't spend any time on
it," Huggins says. "I didn't think they had any chance of going to
college." He has given up recruiting James, though Huggins is
well-established in Akron from his days coaching there.

The most obvious problem with abandoning the recruitment of a
player such as Perkins, though, is he could surprise everyone and
choose to play in college. Then, the schools that might have had him
would be flogging themselves for missing an opportunity.

"I still think we've got to get the best players," says Michigan State
coach Tom Izzo, who lost power forward Zach Randolph after one
season with the Spartans. "Maybe we've got to spend a little more
time figuring out, `What are your goals? What do you want?' I've
heard a couple of big-time coaches talk about not recruiting those
guys, but I don't want to do that."

Aside from his skill and stature, Perkins' honesty and intelligence
seem to be his most appealing qualities. Few players would admit, as
he did, to delivering a performance at the ABCD Camp that rated
"about a five" on a 10-point scale. "I didn't like my energy level. I just
didn't give it what I should have," Perkins says. "The lack of energy
really came from not being in shape, so I'm really striving to be in
shape."

Perkins' development into an elite prospect was not without major
hurdles. His mother was murdered at her beauty salon job when he
was 5. His father had long since left the family. Perkins was raised by
his grandparents and has grown extremely close to his coach, Andre
Boutte, who guides him through those intensive workouts.

The recruiting process has not yet been difficult to handle. Perkins
concedes there are programs not involved because they do not
expect him to be a collegian but says he could list those that remain
"all day long." He has not made any recruiting visits, though, and
hasn't attended college games. He claims to have no favorites, let
alone a list of finalists.

Telep sees a clear indication of Perkins' plans in that. Other top-five
players, such as Houston forward Ndudi Ebi, already have made
official visits. But Perkins insists colleges that continue recruiting
him are not wasting time. "Not at all," he says.

He does not play much on the club circuit but again will attend the
ABCD Camp when it opens Sunday at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
With James out for much of the summer because of a broken wrist,
Perkins will be the No. 1 attraction. Perkins would prefer to fight for
the attention and, if he chooses that direction, for the top spot in the
2003 NBA draft.

"If a team that's No. 1 needs a center, they're not going to pick a
shooting guard. Who knows what's going to happen?" Perkins says.
"It's really about how I develop. If I feel I'm ready, I'm going to go.
Most people see the money, but the NBA is a job. If I feel I'm ready to
play in that length of a season, I'll go. If I don't, then I won't."

Perkins conducts himself like a young man interviewing for a new
job--or a spot in a college freshman class. It could go either way.